Web Design Forum: SniderDK - Viewing Profile - Web Design Forum

Hello everyone,

I have been sitting on this until the time is right, which is about now .

Since 2008 I have been creating a SaaS platform. Now, before you say it - yes it has been a long time - but the system has dramatically changed purpose in that period as we realised it could do a lot more than we originally planned!

We started off by making a simple order processing platform that has been in use since late September 2008 and has constantly evolved since. First it was simply designed to be a system that bridged the gap between manual / telephone / mail ordering processes, but in 2010 we threw online shops into the mix and the platform has processed nearly £3m in orders (so it has been battle tested!). It’s designed to be ‘one system’, ‘one platform’, ‘one place to run your commerce’ - and because of that it’s seamless to work with.


The project for this year has seen us move away from just ecommerce sites but websites in general. We’ve done this because what we ended up building is a truly scalable, multi-server cloud platform (no buzz working intended!) and it works really very well.

I’m not going to get into deep tech specs here - happy to have that conversation in the future with trusted partners - but from the ground up we have designed our system to tackle the common issues for SMEs that either have or want a website - whether it is eCommerce or not - although eCommerce is where our primary focus is. It is fundamentally different to other ‘rival’ platforms as we don’t remotely share the same limitations.

I’m really excited that we’re now finally in a position to open the system up and let outsiders in. In theory we could open up with a public beta - but the platform and UI is still a bit rough round the edges. Our problem is, we’re developers, we write damn good code but creative flair to make things look pretty is not something I profess to have. It’s a blessing and a curse!

Therefore, we’re looking for up to 5 experienced designers looking to get involved with something quite new and ground-breaking from day 1. A little programming knowledge, or at least a basic knowledge of how things fit together would be ideal as we’re still working through populating our Wiki - but the end game is that the system should be as easy as possible to use for both the customer and the designer - so both can just focus on what they’re good at.

Whats the offer?

We’re running this project on a shoe-string - because we believe firmly in the platform and that in the long-run the hard work and effort will pay off. So for the moment we’re not looking to offer monetary rewards. But we’re looking for people who want to get excited by getting involved and having a real input into shaping where the platform goes next.

In addition to this what we can offer is :-

Reasonable use of the platform for hosting your own sites - free of charge - for the life of your websites

Be one of the first 5 designers to learn how to make themes for this new system

Be one of the first people we contact when we have custom theme requests in the future

Have the opportunity to submit your new themes to our ‘theme store’ which will enable you to make a monthly (not just a one-off) income from creating themes for our users

We’re not asking for free design work here, we want to create and nurture partnerships so we can work together, collaborate and create future income for both you and us. And we need to know what real designers think of the system.

What do I need to know?

HTML 5 / XHTML - Table based layout is a big ‘no no’
CSS

What would be a bonus to know?
Javascript
Using a template engine
SVN
SEO

What do I have to do?

Were not asking huge amounts of input - we just want you to have a go at designing sites using the system and then tell us what’s wrong, what’s right and any ideas and feedback you have for us. We provide your space on the platform, we help you with documentation and support by email / Skype / forum etc... and when we launch you’ll be the first to be able to generate real themes for our customers.

We use an in-browser bug reporting system that allows you to take and annotate screen shots from within the browser - making it dead easy to report things to us. And of course we can all talk together from our forum.

Interested? Cool... just send an email to pl@originalwebware.co.uk and say hello. Links to previous work you have done would be good too so I can take a look.

For us this is more than just a beta test. This is a new project, a startup business, and your chance to get involved. I’m personally really exited at the potential to form some new friendships and partnerships here.

… and as we’re programmers and not designers, we’re going to need some decent designers when we do launch - and you guys would be the first port of call.

Any questions then please do fire away.